Addicts To Be Given Financial Advice To Avoid Debt

Alcoholics are to be given financial advice to help them avoid the crippling debts which can hinder their path to recovery.

Addiction experts believe the stress caused by facing financial insolvency is a key factor that causes many addicts to fall off the wagon and believe sorting these out can make it easier for them to stay off drink in the long-term.

More than 1000 recovering alcoholics are likely to benefit every year from an advice service being set up by Addaction Scotland after it secured a £100,000 grant to provide a project worker for three years.

It is thought to be the first time an addiction service has provided its own financial advice to clients.

The charity, which works at eight addiction centres in Glasgow, Ayrshire and Dundee, believes that people with alcohol problems are more likely to fall into debt problems and that this can be exacerbated by the problems associated with their addictions.

Typically, they are people in their early 30s with families to support, the charity has found. They are less likely to have a bank account or be able to obtain credit and so are more likely to obtain money via loan sharks or by pawning their own possessions.

Andrew Horne, operations manager for Addaction Scotland, said that people with alcohol problems often built up thousands of pounds worth of debt by failing to keep up with ordinary household payments such as utility bills and council tax.

He said: “The people we see have severe alcohol problems and complex health needs. In addition to that, they usually have difficult financial problems such as rent arrears and non-payment of council tax. They don’t have access to credit or have a formal bank account so either they spend their time with money launderers or pawning their goods and getting them back.”

People who had given up alcohol often resumed their habit after their debts caught up with them, Mr Horne added. “It’s one of the things that can drag them back down after they start to get themselves together – they get themselves free of alcohol and then, sometimes a long time later, they get a knock on the door and they turn back to alcohol.”